Image of a painting on a easel depicting the river and trees around it.

Plein Air Painting in Oil

Weekend Workshop | Available

Offsite Seattle, WA Offsite United States
Offsite
All Levels
6/28/2025-6/29/2025
9:30 AM-4:30 PM PDT on Sun Sat
$390.00
$351.00

Plein Air Painting in Oil

Weekend Workshop | Available

Instruction Medium: Oil paint primary, other paint medias ok

 

The weekend workshop will focus on building a plein air painting over two days. We will spend the first day of the workshop exploring our surroundings and making quick thumbnails in oil as a way to gather color and compositional data. We will go over some of the basic things to know about landscape painting.

 

Day two of the workshop will be taking our favorite compositions and developing them further as larger paintings in oil. We will go over optimal setup strategies, finding your composition, navigating colors and values outdoors, dealing with the changing lighting conditions, and of course, the principles of atmospheric perspective. The class is great for painters at any level of experience.

  • Note: The supply list below is a suggested or recommended supply list, but folks are welcome to bring the materials they have. Feel free to email the instructor with questions or concerns regarding supplies.

    Easel Types:

    -French easel- heavy and large to carry, but stable

    -Field Easel- lightweight and compact, but need to be weighed down for stability

    -Pochade Box- Stable and useful, most require a tripod, and they can be expensive

     

    You are free to bring any setup that you already have or are comfortable with, but remember that you may have to carry it a little ways to the painting location from the parking lot. I would recommend trying out your setup before class, even if just in your own yard.

     

    Resources: You can google all these and find great options

    Field Easel: I’ve used a Napoli easel for several years, it was cheap and simple, found it at cheap joes art

    Pochade box brands: Open Box M, Strada Easel, Edge Pro easel, Guerilla Painter, En Plein Air Pro, New Wave pochade, Cup Palette. I currently use a Strada Easel with a tripod or a Day Tripper setup made by Prolific Painter.

     

     

    Read this article for more: https://www.outdoorpainter.com/best-plein-air-easels-for-artists/

     

    Brushes- good variety of size and shapes. I primarily use stiff long flats in the 6-8 size range. Both synthetic and bristle hairs.

    *A brush carrying case is very helpful:

    https://smile.amazon.com/JTDEAL-Storage-Acrylic-Watercolor-Gouache/dp/B06X93CZ2F/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2TVWFOSUDS680&dchild=1&keywords=paint+brush+carrying+case&qid=1589042728&sprefix=paint+brush+carr%2Caps%2C235&sr=8-1

     

     

    Paper Towel: blue shop towels are best

     

    Solvent: Gamsol

    Medium: Galkyde Light OR your medium of choice.

    https://smile.amazon.com/Gamblin-Galkyd-Gel-150-Ml/dp/B0006OJACO/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3PSBY7GSAVXBD&dchild=1&keywords=galkyd+oil+medium&qid=1589042820&sprefix=galky%2Caps%2C338&sr=8-4

    Solvent/medium and small sealable jars to carry them. 

    This one is great for solvent:

    https://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Painter-Mighty-Brush-Washer/dp/B0049UZFBG

    Baby food jars are great for liquid medium

    Spring clamps, assorted sizes: these are good for a number of random applications, I typically bring a few big ones and 3-4 tiny ones.

     

    Apron or clothes you don’t mind getting paint on.

     

    Trash bag for dirty rags

     

    Panels/Canvas/Painting Substrate

    Please bring whatever you are comfortable painting on for oil paint. Some size suggestions are 6x9 / 8x10 / 9x12 / 11x14. I recommend bringing 4 or more panels. 

     

    Paint

    Any brand you have already or prefer to use is fine, Gamblin is a high quality and affordable brand. I recommend Williamsburg Paints, or Michael Harding, however they are more expensive.

     

    *-Titanium White

    -Naples Italian Yellow

    -Nickel Yellow

    *-Cadmium Yellow Light/Lemon

    -Raw Sienna

    *-Cadmium Red

    -Permanent Crimson

    -Burnt Sienna

    *-Ultramarine

    -Raw Umber

    *-Ivory Black

     

    *Essential primary palette colors

     

    You are free to use your own palette of colors, However, having Cadmium Yellow, Raw Sienna, and Ultramarine are highly recommended additions to whatever your pallet is.

     

    **Compact foldable chair:

    https://www.amazon.com/lychee-Outdoor-Three-Legged-Foldable-Travelling/dp/B07PK1X5FK/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=3+legged+foldable+camping+chair&qid=1589044010&s=arts-crafts&sr=8-2

     

    **Brimmed Hat

    **Sunscreen

     

    **wet panel carrier: a container to carry your wet painting safely home.

    https://www.amazon.com/RayMar-Wet-Painting-Carriers-Carrier/dp/B07M6RGL5D/ref=sr_1_4?crid=4UALB7O5JGGB&dchild=1&keywords=wet+panel+carrier&qid=1589043183&s=arts-crafts&sprefix=wet+panel%2Carts-crafts%2C261&sr=1-4

     

    Backpack to carry everything/weigh down your setup

     

    **Umbrella- this can be for both sun and rain

    **recommended but optional 

     
    Riley Doyle